By Amanda Macias Business Insider America’s most expensive weapons system ever built is on track for “initial combat use” by September 2016. Business Insider recently toured Lockheed Martin’s massive production facility in Fort Worth, Texas, where the three F-35 Lightning II variant aircrafts are designed and manufactured. The $400 …

WILLIAM MACLEAN REUTERS Saudi Arabia’s new foreign minister, a U.S.-educated connoisseur of Washington’s diplomatic scene and longtime adviser to the kingdom’s rulers, is an articulate spokesman for his country’s new assertive approach to the Middle East’s growing conflicts. A well-known figure in Washington government circles and on U.S. …

By continuing its economic rebalancing, China could increase the scale of its economy by trillions of dollars. By Stephen S. Roach China is at a major crossroads on its long journey to economic development. A still sluggish post-crisis global economy is at an equally critical juncture. In an …

Christine Petre The Middle East Monitor Forensic psychologist John Horgan argues that we are “genuinely unprepared” for the Islamic State. The author of “The Psychology of Terrorism”, who has just returned to the US from Pakistan where he conducted research on children and radicalisation, believes that ISIS is …

Amelia Smith The Middle East Monitor Two weeks after Tunisia’s deadly Bardo attacks, vendors in Hammamet’s souks lay out brightly coloured pots and cotton scarves under the March sunshine. It’s hard to believe this seaside town on the Mediterranean was once the most popular destination for tourists who …

Amelia Smith The Middle East Monitor Before he became the most powerful person in the Ba’ath party, Saddam Hussein warned he would make a Stalinist state out of Iraq. True to his word he adopted Stalinist-style secret service techniques, along with tribal methods he had grown up around, …

By Samira Shackle The Middle East Monitor Last Thursday, the bodies recovered from the Mediterranean’s worst-ever migrant disaster were buried in Malta. There were only 24 coffins, although an estimated 800 people died. None of the bodies were identified; some had numbers scrawled on them referring to a …

The Middle East Monitor: The Western media has worked hard in the past two weeks to shed light on the relationship between former Iraqi army officers and ISIS. Its analysis suggests that ISIS is an armed wing of the Iraqi Baath Party’s deep state. I believe that the …

Reuters: Iranian naval forces have released a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship impounded on Tuesday in the Persian Gulf. Early news reports said that the Maersk Tigris, with a full crew on board, was directed towards the Iranian island of Qeshm near the southern port of Bandar Abbas after …